[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by 67Lemons

Forward lifts are manufactured overseas and use Chinese parts to keep costs down. In the past it was a great lift and still better than anything else in its class, most notably due to its ALI certification and increased testing methods Rotary uses in its design and construction but with all that being said I definitely saw a run of pumps and cylinders failing a couple of years ago, those issues have been rectified with the newer lifts in my experience. While I would agree with your feelings on the performance or lack of performance/quality on your particular lift it is still a MUCH better lift than other import lifts, the most important part being that Rotary supports the lift with service and replacement parts. Believe it or not there a lot of lifts in the marketplace sold at a professional level of quality with zero support, warranty or replacement parts, it’s a sad state of affairs out there. The biggest problem with Forward in today’s market is that the costs due to various reasons and tariffs have brought the price to within a few dollars of the made in the USA Rotary lifts.

FWIW, our recommendations to a customer on Rotary vs Forward is if the lift is used more than 5-10 times a day than the customer is better off with the Rotary which is designed for over 30,000 cycles, generally speaking for limited use whether it be at home or light shop use we recommend the Forward, for high volume applications such as dealerships, high volume shops we recommend the Rotary products. Overall the Forward is a great lift for home shop use and you’d be hard pressed to find a better lift, especially after 5-10 years of use, the other lifts will have failed and needed replacement well before that time in my experience.

I don't want to turn my SD thread into a lift one. But I will say I agree 100% with your post. We have 32 Rotary lifts in the school I work at. All installed in 1998. Not a single failure with thousands and thousands of students using them over 30 years. When I bought my Forward lift, a Rotary equivalent was double the cost. As I said, even though I have had some issues, the service and support for the Forward Lifts has been top notch.